The field of network security has become increasingly important in today's society. The Internet has enabled interconnection of different computer networks all over the world. The ability to effectively protect and maintain stable computers and systems, however, presents a significant obstacle for component manufacturers, system designers, and network operators. This obstacle is made even more complicated due to the continually-evolving array of tactics exploited by malicious operators. Once malicious software (e.g., a bot) has infected a host computer, a malicious operator may issue commands from a remote computer to control the malicious software. The software can be instructed to perform any number of malicious actions such as, for example, sending out spam or malicious emails from the host computer, stealing sensitive information from a business or individual associated with the host computer, propagating to other host computers, and/or assisting with distributed denial of service attacks. In addition, the malicious operator can sell or otherwise give access to other malicious operators, thereby escalating the exploitation of the host computers. Security professionals need to develop innovative tools to combat such tactics that allow malicious operators to exploit computers.